More Art Zones
|
The monks of Early Christendom lived separately in scattered cells, meeting at the monastic church for ritual purposes and in the refectory for meals. Later, the accommodation for the monks in Eastern Christendom was regularly built against the inside of a fortified girdle wall, leaving the church standing free in a central court with the refectory facing it. In Western Christendom the church is usually to the north of the cloister, an arcaded garden court which is the centre of the life of the community.
The normal arrangement of the various rooms in a medieval monastery is as follows: along the east walk of the cloister were: the sacristy (adjoining the church); the chapter-house, where the community met daily to hear a chapter of the monastic Rule and to transact business (there was often a chapel extending east from the chapter-house with an infirmary for old and sick monks beyond it); the parlour or auditorium for speaking, which gave access to the easterly parts of the monastery; and the workshop. Above these rooms was the dormitory with exit directly into the south transept of the church or, by stairway, to the cloister.
The south walk embraced the calefactory, the only heated room in the monastery, the refectory, the pantry, and the kitchens, with shops, bakery, stables and quarters for lay brethren and servants not far distant. The west walk gave access to the cellars and stores and in it, adjoining the church, was the cloister entrance. The north walk ran alongside the church nave and the library, and the scribes used to be installed there. The guest house was often north of the church nave with the porter's cella in it or near-by. There was generally a hospice for poor visitors to the south-west of the church. Conventual structures had a simple rather barn-like character until the 12th century; later they developed fine architectural features, showing the same variations in style as the churches. Many notable monasteries were built in the 17th and 18th centuries especially in France and Austria.
SGRAFFITO
This term was used in Renaissance Italy to define a popular method of decorating the fronts of stuccoed buildings. A coat of pigmented plaster was laid over a coat of another colour, and before it had dried a design was incised through to the undercoat. Black and white were used in the traditional manner, but as the technique was elaborated many colours were employed, as well as gilding. A famous example is the Palazzo del Consiglio, Verona ( 1476). The word sgraffito is also used to designate any image incised on a wall, such as the example in Ashwell, Hertfordshire, a 14th-century representation of Old St Paul's, London.
SHAFT
A term used to describe the section of a column between base and capital in Classic architecture. In medieval architecture, this term is applied to entire small columns, such as those enclosing a clustered pier.
TRIUMPHAL ARCH
Triumphal arches were built in Antiquity in honour of the returning victorious armies and their commanders. The origins of the triumphal arch are disputed. Its basic form includes a monumental gateway -- often surmounted by a quadriga containing a statue of the victorious general -- decorated in relief with scenes of war and triumph. There are also triumphal arches with several gateways, and double archways, which were built at street crossings. Some of the best-known and best-preserved arches in Rome are the arch of Titus (completed c. A.D. 80), the arch of Septimius Severus (built at the beginning of the 3rd century A. D.) and the arch of ( A. D. 312). Triumphal arches were also frequently erected outside Rome during the Imperial age ( Benevento, Orange, etc.). The bridge of the Emperor Frederick II (d. 1250) in Capua, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris ( 1806) and the Marble Arch in London ( 1825) were all modelled on the Roman triumphal arch.
|
 |
RSS Feed XML Sitemap HTML Sitemap Contact Us Privacy Policy
